GAYS/QUEERS

GOD’S EYE ON THE
QUEER GUY
by Dale Brown

There are extreme views on the Gay question on several fronts. Because many in the gay community are pleasant people and many of our friends may be gay there is often a tendency to redefine terms of morality based on our prejudices. The Bible is quoted and misquoted to support our views.

The first reference to homosexuality is in the book of Genesis. Due to a land dispute Lot, Abraham’s nephew, had moved into the Jordan valley near what is now the Dead Sea, to the city of Sodom. It had a reputation of being a place full of exceeding wickedness and sinners against God. When some neighboring kings went to war against Sodom and Gomorrah Lot’s family was taken captive. Abraham mustered an army and rescued them. The king and priest of Salem came out and blessed Abraham, and the king of Sodom was grateful as well and offered to pay him. A few chapters later it is revealed to Abraham by God that Sodom and Gomorrah are about to be judged for their sins. Abraham, concerned for his relatives, reasons with God about Lot and his family. Two angels are sent to deliver the message of the pending doom and to rescue Lot’s family. "Sensual and unprincipled" men of Sodom surround Lot’s house and demand that the two foreigners come out so they can have sexual relations with them. Lot refuses to allow his guests to be mistreated and the Sodomites make threats of what they are going to do to him. Out of desperation Lot offers his daughters to them. When they persist with their aggression and try breaking down the door they are struck with blindness. When Lot tried explaining to his sons-in-law about getting out of town they refused to take him serious. Lot, his wife and two daughters were ushered out of town by the angels leaving everyone else behind. "Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven, and He overthrew those cities, and the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground"(Gen.19:24&25).
From this story we get the term Sodomy. In Hebrew the word Sodom means to scorch and Gomorrah means a ruined heap.

JESUS NEVER ADDRESSED GAYS

It is true that Jesus never addressed homosexuality directly. He did however allude to God’s judgment on the city of Sodom in two places. Being a Jew he taught directly from the Law of Moses. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill"(Matt. 5:17). He in fact rebuked the religious leaders of his day on numerous occasions because they were misrepresenting the Law of Moses. His remarks regarding divorce clearly reflect the Biblical marriage tradition of male and female (Mk. 10:6-12).
How the Law looks at sexual sin is very clear. It is covered from nearly every angle in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Leviticus—everything from homosexuality to sex with animals—and reference to the fruit of these heathen practices are made in this way, "for the men of the land who have been before you have done all these abominations, and the land has become defiled." The spillover affect of sin on society is obvious. When the drunk driver kills an innocent person we all feel the consequences, emotionally and financially. Laws are written to bring some form of order. God’s laws are no different.

A NEW TESTAMENT PERSPECTIVE

The words of New Testament writers were just as clear. Several thousand years later the apostle Peter wrote, "He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly thereafter"(2 Pet. 2:6). Jude wrote, "Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them . . . indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example, in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire."

WHAT IS NATURAL?

Apostle Paul who was schooled under Gamaliel the high priest knew full well the history of the Jewish tradition. In his epistle to the Romans he spoke clearly of the principles of God’s judgment on idolatry and sensuality. "Professing to be wise, they became fools . . . Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper.

GOD IS LOVE

It is clear that God loves gay people, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
The Law of Moses was given as a guide to point us to Christ who can deliver us of the bondage of sin. We all have different weaknesses. Some may be of a sexual nature, others may be to alcohol or drugs. The solution is the same. The blood of Christ. Is it loving to misrepresent the truth?
Paul wrote to the Corinthians a reminder of their past and how they should act as believers. "Do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, or idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit of our God."

The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever. (Isa. 40:8) 　
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x-iSrIvL6I